A link to the original article on the Program in Women's and Gender Studies page of the MIT site.
Author: Caroline Rubin graduated from MIT and recieved the Kampf Prize from the University's Program in Women's and Gender Studies for this essay, "The Gendered Language of Gamete "Domination"". She submitted this essay in 2008 during her senior year. Her major was brain and cognitive science and antropology.
Summary/Analysis: In this article Rubin examines the public discourse surrounding gamete donation and its relation to te gender ideology of gamete donation. Gamete donation refers to the process by which men or women provide gametes (sperm or eggs) for the express purpose of creating a baby, often for an infertile couple(). Rubin mentions that the advertisment, the criteria to be a donor, and the public discourse of gamete donation are all gender organized. Advertisement for gamete donation is centered on the ability to get male and female attention. For males the ads usuall contain prominent features such as amount of money or donor benefits that are offered. Ads typically ffer benefits such as gift cards, minimal time commitment, movie/game tickets, or even free health screening tests. Ads targeting men usually speak in terms of "earning" or "making", and may have a sight of job listings linked to the search for sperm donor on the internet. These ads are usually very illustrative and contain cartoons of sperm, which is intended to be funny. For ads targeting women, however, the emphasis is on the philanthropic aspects. Typically these ads contain phrases that trigger the motherhood, and emotions. These ads generally offer more emotional incentives, such as choosing to be anonymous donor or choosing the couple that recieves the egg. The ads featuring non-verbal components typically use things like a baby with a happy smiling family. Why are the different genders targeted differently? Rubin explains that one reason is becase of the procedures involved for each of the genders. For males the process is peasureful, easy, and quick so their donation is almost amusing. Women require a surgical and medical intervention and can be painful, so donations fall on a more serious side. Another reason Rubin gives, is the ideology of seperate spheres. This ideology implies that men belong to the commodity exchange and wage labor, public, sphere, and omen belong to the reproductive and family, private, sphere. Men and women are no longer restricted to these spheres but, as Rubin explains,ideology doesn't exactly evolve at the same rate as behavior. Men have been able to switch from public to private spheres faster than women can switch from private to public spheres. The gender separation continues even into the criteria to donate. Both men and women applications ask questions about physical features, college attendence, occupation, and medical history. Women's applications ask about morals, such as religious views. Men are asked about financial aspects. Why is selling eggs a moral threat, but selling sperm isnt? Female sexuality is more directly linked to femal reproduction than male sexuality is. Further, motherhood is seen as crusial for womanhood to a march larger extent than fatherhood is to manhood. Because of this it is easier to see why some people view women , that donate their eggs, as prostituting their body, and men, who donate their sperm, as following their manly urges and nature. Now the cartoon ads make "sense" because they appeal to the notion that sperm donors, as men, are motivated by a primitive urge to impregnant as many women as possible, without having to commit to fatherhod. There is a cultural logic behind this, women do not [typically] voluntarily give their reproductive capabilities to strangers, much less do so for money, so it is easily interperted as prostitution of the body. Helena Ragone's observation states that egg donors do occasionally feel "trashy" or "like a prostitute"after donating, often because of the reaction of family and friends. This is why women are "compensated" instead of "paid", to avoid the sacred private sphere from leaking into unholypublic spheres, and to attempt to stop the implication that by seling their egs, donors are prostitutes. Gamete donation is like other types of blood and organ tissue donations in that it relies on the narratives of gift-giving to avoid being named immoral use of commoditng the body. But Gamete donations is sex specified tissue, and is exchanged for money. In all gamete donation is a gender organized process, and arguments about gamete donation often branch from the gender dominating process. Advertisements targeting women: In this Ad it shows a baby, assumed to have come from a woman that donated her egg, and it applies to more of the moral aspect of donating. This shows the "compensation" aspect that are applied to women targeted ads, because there is nothing about getting paid or any funny quotes, words, or pictures added, it is entirely centered on the idea of giving and hope.
. Advertisments targeting men: In the ad to the most left there is a beautiful women in the center of the picture, as to appeal to men, and it uses words that can be amusing or sly, like cum, just at Rubin talks about. In the ad to the right, the biggest words on the ad are "get paid", as we can see the focus is money and the benefits of donating sperm.
Procedures:
Works Cited: Rubin, Caroline. "The gendered language of Gamete "Donation"". MIT Program in Women's and Gender Studies, 2008. Web. 21 Aug. 2010. <http://web.mit.edu/wgs/prize/cr08.html> Copywrite 2008 byt Caroline Rubin. Reprinted in "Writing in the Disciplines: A reader and Rhetoric for academic Writers". Mary Lynch Kennedy and William J. Kennedy. Copywrite 2012 by Pearson Education Inc.
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A link to the original article on the Program in Women's and Gender Studies page of the MIT site.
Author: Caroline Rubin graduated from MIT and recieved the Kampf Prize from the University's Program in Women's and Gender Studies for this essay, "The Gendered Language of Gamete "Domination"". She submitted this essay in 2008 during her senior year. Her major was brain and cognitive science and antropology.
Summary/Analysis: In this article Rubin examines the public discourse surrounding gamete donation and its relation to te gender ideology of gamete donation. Gamete donation refers to the process by which men or women provide gametes (sperm or eggs) for the express purpose of creating a baby, often for an infertile couple(). Rubin mentions that the advertisment, the criteria to be a donor, and the public discourse of gamete donation are all gender organized.
Advertisement for gamete donation is centered on the ability to get male and female attention. For males the ads usuall contain prominent features such as amount of money or donor benefits that are offered. Ads typically ffer benefits such as gift cards, minimal time commitment, movie/game tickets, or even free health screening tests. Ads targeting men usually speak in terms of "earning" or "making", and may have a sight of job listings linked to the search for sperm donor on the internet. These ads are usually very illustrative and contain cartoons of sperm, which is intended to be funny. For ads targeting women, however, the emphasis is on the philanthropic aspects. Typically these ads contain phrases that trigger the motherhood, and emotions. These ads generally offer more emotional incentives, such as choosing to be anonymous donor or choosing the couple that recieves the egg. The ads featuring non-verbal components typically use things like a baby with a happy smiling family.
Why are the different genders targeted differently? Rubin explains that one reason is becase of the procedures involved for each of the genders. For males the process is peasureful, easy, and quick so their donation is almost amusing. Women require a surgical and medical intervention and can be painful, so donations fall on a more serious side.
Another reason Rubin gives, is the ideology of seperate spheres. This ideology implies that men belong to the commodity exchange and wage labor, public, sphere, and omen belong to the reproductive and family, private, sphere. Men and women are no longer restricted to these spheres but, as Rubin explains,ideology doesn't exactly evolve at the same rate as behavior. Men have been able to switch from public to private spheres faster than women can switch from private to public spheres.
The gender separation continues even into the criteria to donate. Both men and women applications ask questions about physical features, college attendence, occupation, and medical history. Women's applications ask about morals, such as religious views. Men are asked about financial aspects.
Why is selling eggs a moral threat, but selling sperm isnt? Female sexuality is more directly linked to femal reproduction than male sexuality is. Further, motherhood is seen as crusial for womanhood to a march larger extent than fatherhood is to manhood. Because of this it is easier to see why some people view women , that donate their eggs, as prostituting their body, and men, who donate their sperm, as following their manly urges and nature. Now the cartoon ads make "sense" because they appeal to the notion that sperm donors, as men, are motivated by a primitive urge to impregnant as many women as possible, without having to commit to fatherhod.
There is a cultural logic behind this, women do not [typically] voluntarily give their reproductive capabilities to strangers, much less do so for money, so it is easily interperted as prostitution of the body. Helena Ragone's observation states that egg donors do occasionally feel "trashy" or "like a prostitute"after donating, often because of the reaction of family and friends. This is why women are "compensated" instead of "paid", to avoid the sacred private sphere from leaking into unholypublic spheres, and to attempt to stop the implication that by seling their egs, donors are prostitutes.
Gamete donation is like other types of blood and organ tissue donations in that it relies on the narratives of gift-giving to avoid being named immoral use of commoditng the body. But Gamete donations is sex specified tissue, and is exchanged for money. In all gamete donation is a gender organized process, and arguments about gamete donation often branch from the gender dominating process.
Advertisements targeting women: In this Ad it shows a baby, assumed to have come from a woman that donated her egg, and it applies to more of the moral aspect of donating. This shows the "compensation" aspect that are applied to women targeted ads, because there is nothing about getting paid or any funny quotes, words, or pictures added, it is entirely centered on the idea of giving and hope.
.
Advertisments targeting men: In the ad to the most left there is a beautiful women in the center of the picture, as to appeal to men, and it uses words that can be amusing or sly, like cum, just at Rubin talks about. In the ad to the right, the biggest words on the ad are "get paid", as we can see the focus is money and the benefits of donating sperm.
Procedures:
Works Cited: Rubin, Caroline. "The gendered language of Gamete "Donation"". MIT Program in Women's and Gender Studies, 2008. Web. 21 Aug. 2010. <http://web.mit.edu/wgs/prize/cr08.html> Copywrite 2008 byt Caroline Rubin. Reprinted in "Writing in the Disciplines: A reader and Rhetoric for academic Writers". Mary Lynch Kennedy and William J. Kennedy. Copywrite 2012 by Pearson Education Inc.